


Old Aches and Old Friends

by gingermaggie



Category: Marauders Era - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Seventh year, post snape/lily friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-01 13:23:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5207417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingermaggie/pseuds/gingermaggie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’ve heard…I’ve heard some rumors, okay? And I need you to tell me they’re not true.”<br/>“Sev, please don’t do this,” she whispered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Aches and Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

> anonymous on tumblr requested: "Severus trying to kiss Lily and James comes to the rescue :)"
> 
> originally posted February 17th 2015  
> http://bellarkesnark.tumblr.com/post/111343388485/severus-trying-to-kiss-lily-and-james-comes-to-the
> 
> title from "where did the party go" by fall out boy

A gentle breeze blew off the lake and directly into Lily’s hair, making it bump insistently against her face until she couldn’t see the book on her lap. She sighed, snapping it closed.

It was getting late anyway. Probably close to dinner time. She ought to head back up to the castle, she had half a Potions essay left to write, and before that she was supposed to meet—

“Lily."

The voice made her jump, not just because of its suddenness, but because she recognized it.

Severus Snape hesitantly approached her bench. After saying her name, he was silent, slowly, cautiously moving to sit beside her. She didn’t look at him, but she was very aware of his presence.

She wished she wasn’t.

From where they sat, she could see the very spot where he’d done the unforgivable; where nearly two years ago the word mudblood had passed his lips; finally, finally directed at her.

She hadn’t forgotten, and she hadn’t really forgiven.

But despite what many might say or think, Lily Evans was not without her faults. One of her greatest was her unbreakable inclination to see the best in people—or, more accurately, to stubbornly keep looking for it, even when it did not exist.

So she did not stand, she did not scream, she did not hex him. She merely stared at the lake with aching hope in her sore heart, wishing for a moment that things could go back to the way they were before fifth year, the way they were before mudblood, the way they were before Death Eaters, the way they were before Hogwarts, even.

She wished, for a moment, for the time when he was a small, shy little boy who became her best friend, and she was newly magical and full of wonder and nothing was wrong in the world.

Of course, she knew that was pointless, and fruitless, and ultimately ineffective. What good would it do to disappear back into who and what she and Severus had once been, when the truth was out about who he would become? When nothing would change that, not even turning back the clock?

And so she said nothing at all.

"Lily,” Sev said again, and it took all her willpower not to look at her former best friend. She didn’t want their friendship back, and she didn’t forgive him, but she wasn’t made of stone. Not quite.

“Lily, listen to me,” he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him. She let him. “I’ve heard…I’ve heard some rumors, okay? And I need you to tell me they’re not true.”

She closed her eyes, her heart breaking. She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to have this conversation. He hadn’t spoken to her in nearly a year. Why did he have to do this?

When she didn’t respond, not even to inquire after what rumors he referred to, Severus froze.

“Lily…” he said.

“Sev, please don’t do this,” she whispered. The first words she’d said to him in she didn’t even know how long.

His eyes were dark and pleading. Desperate. “I need you to tell me that it isn’t true.”

She sighed, shifting away from him. “I can’t do that, Severus.”

“Why?” his voice shook.

“You know why.” She chanced a glance in his direction. “Because it is true.”

Betrayal flashed across his face. Like despite it all, he really had thought it was a silly rumor. Like he really, truly believed that after everything, his dear ex-best-friend Lily Evans would never—

Before Lily could finish this thought, her former friend’s hand was on her neck and he was leaning in.

Like he was desperate.

Like he was throwing everything at her in a last-ditch attempt at winning her back—winning her back on a scale that he’d never dared to attempt before.

Like he was going to kiss her.

Her eyes widened and she jerked her head back, instinctively going for her wand, resting on top of her pack on the ground.

"Evanesco!” she said, quickly getting to her feet before the bench vanished beneath her, sending Snape tumbling to the ground in a miserable heap. He didn’t get up right away, even as Lily grabbed her bag and took several steps back.

“Evans?"

James Potter trailed behind his voice, approaching the spot where the former friends remained, one towering over the crumpled other, confusion in his tone and on his face.

"What’s…?” he trailed off as he recognized the figure on the ground, who was now struggling to his feet. James’s face twisted into something between distaste and anger, but his expression lacked the malicious tilt toward torment it held when he was younger and quite less mature. “Snape,” he said shortly.

“He was just leaving,” Lily said sharply, when Snape looked ready to sneer something at the newcomer. “Right, Severus?”

He looked at her with wretched sorrow in his eyes, but as she glared stonily at him his own gaze hardened, and she got the terrible feeling that she wouldn’t need to worry about him trying to kiss her again.

As he departed in the direction of the castle, trying and failing to look confident and haughty as he departed, James edged closer to Lily, taking her hand shyly.

“What was Snape doing here?” he asked, brows furrowed.

She sighed, leaning against her new boyfriend’s shoulder. “Asking about you. And me.”

James’s lips curved into half a smirk. “Now what on earth could concern dear Snivellus about you and me?”

Lily couldn’t help smiling as she stepped up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to the edge of his mouth. “Perhaps a bit of this,” she suggested. She twined her hand through the hair at the nape of his neck. “Or this,” she murmured against his lips.

His arm went around her waist and he smiled, Snape already half forgotten. “Is that right?” he asked. “Hardly seems scandalous behavior. If you really want to start rumors, I have some ideas…”

“He also tried to kiss me.” It slipped out before Lily made the conscious decision to admit it, though she knew it was of course the sort of thing one ought to tell one’s boyfriend.

James went still against her, his hand twitching automatically toward his wand as his head twisted in the direction of Snape’s retreat.

She grabbed his arm. “James, don’t. I took care of it.”

Reluctantly James looked back to his girlfriend. She pressed a persuasive kiss to his lips.

“Really,” she said. “He won’t bother me again. Promise.”

He sighed. “Alright, alright.”

Holding hands, Head Boy and Girl—their blossoming relationship the talk of the school—began the walk back to the castle, wisely choosing a slightly different route than Severus Snape.

Their paths were parallel enough, however, that it wasn’t too difficult for James to sneak out his wand and send a really quite innocent Jelly-Legs Jinx in the latter’s direction without Lily noticing. Her attention focused on keeping the wind from blowing her hair into her face, she didn’t see her ex-best-friend wobble and topple to the ground.

But James did, and while it wasn’t quite the duel for Lily’s honor he might have enjoyed, he was rather mollified.

**Author's Note:**

> i know this isn’t exactly what you asked for, but it’s what came out :) it makes sense to me that while Lily would certainly be capable of getting her own (effective) retribution, James would be quite interested in some (petty) revenge of his own. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
